April 27, 2008

Greetings,

Winter has made its last come back I hope. I was not in Forman yesterday but there was probably 3-5 inches of snow. More as you go east. Not a lot of moisture in the last week for us, less then a 1/2 inch. We had a little over 0.25 rain before the snow. I managed to get the first shot of nitrogen on the winter wheat Thursday, so there should have been enough moisture to get that into the ground. The flax got planted Wednesday. Corn planting will be a few days off. I was surprised to see 55 degree 2 inch soil temperatures in the strip tilled soybeans at 5 this afternoon. The air temperature was 39, and the black ground was surface frozen this morning. The coming week looks cool and possibly wet. To paraphrase the Pioneer news letter, it is not good if corn takes on water less the 50 degrees. Some guys did start planting corn last week. It will be interesting to see how things turn out. If we do get rain at the end of the week it could easily set us back to the second week in May as the forecast I read today indicated a possibility of heavy rain. I certainly hope the rest of the state can get a good soaker as they desperately need it.

A couple farmers in the area are putting on Martin spoked gauge wheels on their planter to stop the mud from building up on the inside and plugging. If you have ever planted in muddy conditions and had the joy of unplugging the entire planter you would certainly want to check these things out. I have not used the planter yet, so can not give a review. With new rubber they will set you back in the neighborhood of $250 a row. I put on the CaseIH tire. They go on pretty easily once you figure out a way to press on the rims. It looks like there is a good chance I will be in some mud so check back for a report.

Kelly Cooper- farm manager